Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Peenya Industrial Estate may be the largest and one of the oldest industrial estates in South East Asia, but as far as basic amenities go, the estate has to deal with drainage lines that were laid decades ago and roads that have been dug up but never repaired.

The industrial estate is spread across 40 square kilometres.

It houses 5,000 small scale industriesand 30 medium industries, provides employment to around 5 lakh people, has an approximate annual turnover of Rs 15,000 crore, exports goods worth Rs 6,000 crore and pays Rs 3,700 crore as taxes. But all this does not seem to be not reason enough to provide it with roads and drains.

Underground drains in Peenya were laid by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) when the industrial estate was formed over three decades ago. Drains today are almost non-existent as the drainage chambers have collapsed completely and in some places sewerage water is overflowing posing a public health hazard. Most of the industries have diverted their drainage water to the soak-in pits to prevent water clogging on roads.

More than a year ago, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) had dug up the road from SBI Cross to Jalahalli Circle to lay the water supply feeder. That has left the roads severely damaged causing a problem to motorists.

Peenya Industries Association Managing Council member J Ramesh said that they had complained to the commissioner about the condition of roads and the lack of sewerage facilities.

“The commissioner visited the industrial estate a few weeks ago but he has not responded so far. We had taken the BBMP Joint Commissioner and BBMP chief engineer of Dasarahalli division to Mumbai to show them the roads laid with interlock paving blocks. The roads laid with interlock paving blocks are good and last longer,” he said.

Prithviraj, proprietor of Barath Packaging, said that the sewerage lines in Peenya are in a very bad condition.

The roads were laid a year ago on government and privatecontribution basis.

The Peenya Industrial Association had contributed 15 per cent of the cost for laying the road.

BWSSB chief engineer T Venkatraju said that the Dasarahalli main road had to be dug up to lay a drinking water pipeline.

The work has been entrusted to L&T and it will be completed by March and the BBMP will lay the road immediately after that, he said. “The BWSSB has already started laying drainage lines in Gorguntepalya and the drainage lines would also be laid in Peenya,” he added.